Friday, October 7, 2011

Ocarina of Time 3D Quest Log 5

Well, after beating the Spirit Temple I didn't have many options. So, like in my Master Quest tour earlier this year, the Fire Temple came next to last. Well, you can't play the Shadow Temple unless you cleared the first three temples, which triggers the event in Kakariko Village. But like I said, I didn't have many options. And again I was entering the Fire Temple with the Mirror Shield equipped, which looks badass.

The Fire Temple was nothing special, but Volvagia was quite cool in 3D. Then I would enter the Shadow Temple and get the Hover Boots, only to leave the temple again and play the Gerudo Training Grounds first. I guess you can beat the Traing Grounds without the Hoverboots, but it makes things a little bit easier. Well, after getting the Ice Arrows I went back to the Shadow Temple and then made my way to Ganon's Castle. Pretty basic.

Nice new graphical details? The ship inside the Shadow Temple got completely redesigned. Instead of a bird it now features Death himself as the figurehead. And there's a door on deck. The ship looks really cool now. And then there's the new bridge to Ganon's Castle, but you've probably seen this already.

But there are also some graphical downgrades. I'd say the new textures of the Like Likes and Deadhand look even worse than in the original. Especially the Like Likes look very "mushy".

I also cleared all of the Boss Challenge including the Gauntlet. In the Gauntlet you start with five Heart Containers and only the basic items. Slingshot, Boomerang, Bow, Hookshot (not the Longshot!), Megaton Hammer, the Eye of Truth and all shields and tunics. No boots, no potions (like in the individual Boss Challenges) or bombs or anything. But after each boss, two treasure chests spawn, a small and a large one. I'm guessing that it's similar to the Goron Target Range in Spirit Tracks, the small treasure chest has the good stuff. It's mostly random, but in case of Gohma the small treasure chest always gives you Bombs, which helps a lot in the King Dodongo battle. And before Morpha I got the Longshot from the small treasure chest. I also got two Heart Containers and one empty bottle, which later only got filled with a Green Potion (small chest before Bongo Bongo). But save for the Bombs and the Longshot it all didn't really matter, because I didn't get hit a single time! I'm not joking, I cleared the entire Gauntlet without getting hit. I wish it would have been the Master Quest Gauntlet, where you only get three hearts and where a single hit can kill you... I bet I will never be able to do such a perfect run again and I will have huge problems with clearing the Gauntlet in Master Quest, lol.

When battling Ganondorf there's still this noticeable slowdown after hitting him with a Light Arrow. I don't know if that was on purpose to "preserve the game's original feel" or if the 3DS actually couldn't handle all the special effects.

The additional credits are nice. Not only that they added the orchestrated track, but there are monochrome images from the game shown in 2D and then slowly morphing into 3D and color. That was really nice. But they could have used the touchscreen to display the names of everyone like they did in the Four Swords Anniversary Edition, so that the names don't overlay or get in the way. But on the other hand, you would never read a single name then...

I also checked out the Sheikah Stones for the first time. There's one video I didn't clear called "Riding on Farore's Wind", I guess I should have used this item at one point. I never use it, I usually play dungeons in one session. I used Nayru's Love though, when fighting the Iron Knuckle as Young Link. Just as a precaution. In Master Quest I will probably use it more often though.

Talking about Master Quest, I have now unlocked "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D Master Quest". I'm going to start this tomorrow. I'm excited how much trouble the mirroring and the double damage will give me.